NEW DELHI, Nov 7 (IPS) - India, which has long
prided itself as a shining example of democracy
and religious-cultural pluralism, is being forced
to contend with an unpleasant truth: the foundations
of its claim to religious integration and harmony
may be far shakier than earlier believed.
Media stories based on official data being gathered
by a government-appointed committee have shockingly
disclosed that Muslims, India's largest religious
minority, face systematic exclusion and serious
discrimination at multiple levels.
Over the past fortnight, various Indian newspapers
and television channels have run reports quoting
statistics being collated by the Prime Minister's
High-Level Committee on the Social, Economic
and Educational Status of Muslims, chaired by
a former High Court judge, Rajinder Sachar.
The Sachar Committee's report has not yet been
officially presented to the government. It is
likely to be submitted any day, and is expected
to cause a political storm.
"Going by what has appeared in the media,
the Committee has established a sad and shameful
truth", says Mohammed Hamid Ansari, chairman
of the official National Commission on Minorities
and a distinguished diplomat who served as India's
ambassador to the United Nations.
"The truth is that Muslims now constitute
India's ‘new underclass';
they are worse off than the rest of the population
in respect of access to public services, literacy,
education, income, social mobility and jobs,"
adds Ansari. "Researchers have long known
this, but the truth has come out of the closet;
it cannot be wished away."
Muslims form 13.4 percent of India's population
of a billion plus people, but are seriously
under-represented in schools, universities,
government jobs and Parliament. They typically
claim a share of only 4 to 6 percent in state
employment.
In some respects, Muslims compare unfavourably
even with Dalits (officially called Scheduled
Castes), India's former untouchables, who have
suffered systematic, cruel discrimination for
centuries at the hands of upper-caste Hindus.
Muslims fare far worse than the lower and middle
orders of the caste hierarchy, officially called
Other Backward Classes (OBCs), in education,
employment, poverty levels and landholding.
For instance, only 80 percent of urban Muslim
boys are enrolled in schools, compared to 90
percent of Dalits and 95 percent of others.
(Earlier, in 1965, both Muslims and Dalits had
72 percent of their urban children enrolled
in schools.)
In the rural areas, just 68 percent of Muslim
girls are at school, compared to 72 percent
of Dalit girls and 80 percent of others.
The gaps have widened. In 1965, Muslim girls
(52 percent enrolment) were considerably better
off than Dalits (40 percent). In villages, enrolment
ratios for Muslims and Dalits were 32 and 19
percent respectively.
But now, Muslim girls are worse off.
"If you are a Muslim, the chances are that
you live in areas deprived of electricity, roads
and municipal services," says Ansari. "There
is growing ghettoisation of Muslims."
Even worse is the discrimination Muslims face
in respect of jobs. The Sachar Committee data
from 12 states, where the Muslims' share in
total population is 15.4 percent, show that
their representation in government jobs is a
tiny 5.7 percent.
Sadly, such under-representation is more acute
in states where Muslims constitute large minorities.
For instance, in West Bengal, Muslims form 25.2
percent of the population, but account for a
measly 4.2 percent in government jobs.
Muslims are particularly poorly represented
in the judiciary, where their share can be as
low of 1.5 percent (Orissa). Barring Jammu &
Kashmir (67 percent of whose people are Muslim),
Muslim representation in judicial services is
consistently low: only 5 percent in West Bengal,
and 12.3 percent in Kerala (Muslim population,
24.7 of total).
In the elite administrative, police and diplomatic
cadres, Muslim representation varies from 1.6
to 3.4 percent. This is not surprising given
that Muslims form a very low proportion of India's
graduates, just 3.6 percent, or under a fourth
of their overall population share.
Muslims are poorly represented in the armed
forces, where their proportion is believed to
be just 2 percent. Recently, there was a furore
because the military refused to divulge this
information to the Sachar Committee.
Muslims are altogether excluded from "sensitive"
posts like jobs in the intelligence agencies,
especially the external espionage agency Research
& Analysis Wing, and the National Security
Guard and other elite VVIP protection forces.
Their presence in the top national police and
paramilitary agencies is nominal.
However, there is one place where Muslims are
over-represented: prisons. Muslims claim a grossly
disproportionate share of prisoners, including
convicts and undertrials. Barring the northeastern
state of Assam, their proportion in prison is
considerably higher than their population share.
For instance, in Maharashtra, Muslims who account
for 10.6 percent of the population, form 40.6
percent of the number of prisoners. In the Delhi
Capital region, the respective ratios are 11.7
and 27.9, in Gujarat 9.1 and 25.1, and Tamil
Nadu 5.6 and 9.6.
"This tears to shreds the claim that India
is successfully overcoming the inter-religious
divide and equitably assimilating Muslims",
says Rajiv Bhargava, a political theorist attached
to the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
in Delhi.
"That claim took a knock with the Hindu-chauvinist
anti-Babri mosque movement in the mid-1980s,
and the ascent of the Hindu-exclusivist Bharatiya
Janata Party to national power in 1998 for six
years. It was further dented by the Gujarat
carnage of 2002, in which 2,000 Muslims were
killed with state collusion. Now, it stands
exposed as a tissue of lies," adds Bhargava.
Anti-Muslim discrimination has visibly increased
as a result of the government's "counter-terrorism"
strategy, which is largely Islamophobic and
involves the harsh application of discriminatory
measures. This explains the large number of
jailed Muslim undertrials.
"The plain, bitter truth is that Muslims
have long been the target of systematic exclusion
and discrimination," says Bhargava. "They
face institutionalised religious prejudice,
just as ethnic minorities from the former colonies
face institutionalised racism in Western Europe,
or the Blacks do in the United States."
This prejudice is acutely reflected in the political
under-representation of Muslims. In India, only
half as many, or fewer, Muslims get elected
as legislators, as their population share. The
proportion is abysmally low for Muslim women.
Many in India used to deny this. Now, the time
has come to face and remedy the situation. Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh recently acknowledged
this and said that it is essential for "peace
and harmony" that "the minorities
get a fair share in central and state government
and private sector jobs." He proposed more
schools in areas with "a predominantly
Muslim population."
The Left parties have been pushing for, and
the government is inclined to, allocate 15 percent
of all development funds for the religious minorities
(which together with Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists
and others comprise 18.4 percent of the population).
This may not be enough. There are two parts
to plans to combat anti-Muslim discrimination:
ending exclusion, and promoting empowerment.
The proposed "special component" plan
could help address the empowerment issue, if
it is implemented and monitored better than
official plans for, say, Dalits.
"But that'll still leave the question of
exclusion largely unaddressed", says Bhargava.
"This will need bold affirmative action,
including aggressive recruitment processes.
Above all, it will entail appointing Muslims
to ‘sensitive' positions in
police, military and intelligence agencies.
Without bold action, the project of combating
anti-Muslim discrimination won't get anywhere."
